HANCOCK COUNTY — A COVID-19 vaccine could be in Indiana as soon as next week, and preparations are underway for administering it in the county.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices voted last week to recommend health care workers and nursing home residents be the first to receive a COVID-19 vaccine when they’re available.
Later this month, the Food and Drug Administration will consider authorizing emergency use of two vaccines made by Pfizer and Moderna. Current estimates project that no more than 20 million doses of each vaccine will be available by the end of 2020. And each product requires two doses. As a result, the shots will be rationed in the early stages.
It will be up to state authorities whether to follow the guidance. It will also be left to them to make further, more detailed decisions if necessary — for example, whether to put emergency room doctors and nurses ahead of other health care workers if vaccine supplies are low.
Dr. Kristina Box, Indiana state health commissioner, said during a media briefing last week that the state is preparing to receive a limited supply of COVID-19 vaccine as early as mid-December.
“This situation is evolving rapidly and information changes daily,” Box said. “But based on what we’re hearing from our federal partners, our hope is that we will have enough vaccine to cover front-line health care workers and long-term care residents by the end of December.”
Box added the state has sent an initial communication to front-line health care workers to notify them of being prioritized for receiving the vaccine when it arrives.
“We will be following up with these individuals when we have more details with specific information on how they can sign up and receive the vaccine,” she said.
Hancock Regional Hospital is getting ready. Tim Livesay, director of pharmacy for the hospital, said an area has been set up for administering COVID-19 vaccines in the facility and includes an area for a short observation period following the shots.
The hospital has also ordered a special freezer capable of reaching the super-cold temperature required for storing Pfizer’s vaccine, Livesay said. Hancock Regional Hospital already has the storage capabilities for Moderna’s vaccine, which doesn’t require as cold of a setting.
Livesay said COVID-19 vaccine storage will be equipped with a monitoring system that takes readings every 15 minutes and that staff will also perform visual inspections twice a day, per CDC requirements.
He also said he understands some people may be concerned about the safety of the COVID-19 vaccines and the speed at which they were created, and admitted he initially shared similar hesitations. The more he learned about the technology that went into the vaccines, however, the more comfortable he became.
“I would have nothing against getting it myself and would recommend that people do get it,” Livesay said.
Almost 70% of Hancock County’s COVID-19 deaths have been residents of long-term care facilities. Across the U.S., about 3 million people are living in nursing homes, long-term chronic care hospitals, and other long-term care facilities. Those patients and the staff members who care for them have accounted for 6% of the nation’s coronavirus cases and a staggering 39% of the deaths, CDC officials say.
At the state level, the inoculation timeline for the state’s nursing home residents is still to be determined.
Anyone who provides care to patients or is exposed to infectious materials will be the first in the state to be offered the vaccine, though it will not be required, said Dr. Lindsay Weaver, chief medical officer for the Indiana State Department of Health, during a webinar meeting on Friday, Dec. 4. That includes doctors, nurses, dentists, first responders, laboratory workers and medical students.
Long-term care facility staff and front-line health-care workers in hospitals, such as those in COVID-19 units, intensive care and emergency departments, are the top priorities during that time, Weaver said: “As soon as we have vaccine, they’ll be invited.”
In the week following the first available doses — when health officials anticipate more rounds of the vaccine will be shipped — all healthcare personnel working in Indiana will then be eligible to get vaccinated at one of 50 hospitals statewide.
“Anybody across the state of Indiana who works in healthcare and has potential exposure to COVID-19 patients … or infectious materials … will all be invited to get the vaccine in the next couple of weeks,” Weaver said. “We believe that we will have enough vaccine available in the state of Indiana by the end of December to vaccinate any healthcare personnel who would like to get the vaccine.”
While healthcare workers within long-term care facilities are included in the earliest criteria, the availability of the vaccine for residents of those facilities “will depend on what we have available,” Weaver said.
Indiana’s original vaccination plan, submitted to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in October, indicated that vulnerable populations would be next in line for the vaccine after healthcare personnel.
Weaver said recent discussions among health officials at the state and federal levels have focused on prioritizing essential workers ahead of those in the vulnerable group, however.
“But we don’t know yet,” Weaver said. “A lot depends on one, how much vaccine we get, and two, the safety and efficacy.”
